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“It’s very nice to meet you, Elise.I’m Maureen.”She grinned over the rim of her cup.“And I couldn’t agree more.”
Maureen had kept more than her share of secrets from her children over the years.It was what mothers did.But only when it really mattered.For example, children had no business knowing the sins of their father.It was the mother’s job to protect her children.And that’s exactly what she’d done.For as long as she could.
Despite what others thought, she’d long known about Harold’s affair and the children borne from it.She’d never forget the day she’d discovered the photograph in his briefcase of the two little girls.They looked to be about the same ages as her two youngest boys, Declan and Cal, and she’d known at once exactly what it meant.The girls shared the same beautiful eyes as her own boys, along with their father’s nose.There was no doubt whose children they were.
He hadn’t taken great pains to hide it from her, but at the same time, he behaved as if everything were normal.Maybe she should have confronted him years earlier, but for reasons that were her own, she never could bring herself to say anything.
What would have been the point?
They had a nice marriage.Harold was a good provider.A good father.He loved her, and she loved him.It didn’t matter that they weren’tinlove.In college, there’d been a time when Harold had been desperately in love with Maureen.His pursuit was relentless.He showered her with gifts and compliments and finally, when she’d run out of reasons to object, she found herself loving him back.It wasn’t a passionate, couldn’t quite breathe, love.But it was enough.
At least, she thought it was.
And it had been enough for a little while.It wasn’t long after Mitch, her second son, was born that Maureen started to notice a shift in Harold.It was also about then when she had two toddlers in tow that she’d started packing up the boys and spending summers at the lake in the house she’d frequented as a girl that her father had left her when he passed away.After a minor bout of thebaby bluesthat lasted a little too long, she’d once more been drawn to the one place she’d fallen in love as a young woman.
Maureen hadn’t understood her feelings back then, not completely.But time and distance had made it perfectly clear.Cedar Springs was home.Harold was busy building his career in the city, but he found time to make the drive every weekend and join his young family in her happy place.
The mountains were healing, and she’d returned to the city in the fall rejuvenated, refreshed and pregnant with Declan.
It was also that summer that Harold had done somehealingof his own, and unbeknownst to Maureen at the time, found love with someone else as well.
For years, they kept the charade of a happy family.Every summer, Maureen would retreat to the lake.It was the only place she felt complete, and—although she’d never admit it to anyone, especially herself—being at the lake connected her to a time when she’d been the happiest she’d ever been.
Harold would arrive on Friday evenings with a bottle of wine and a fresh bouquet of flowers from the greenhouse on the highway.He’d spend Saturday and Sunday with the boys on the water, pulling them behind the boat as they showed off their growing water-skiing and wakeboarding skills, or teaching them to fish.On cooler days, Harold would take the boys into the forest, where they’d hike for hours.He’d point out animal signs and show them how to build shelters and make fires.He loved his boys, and he was an excellent father.
And that’s why she’d stayed quiet for so many years.It was more important for Ian, Mitch, Declan, and Cal to have a father who loved them present in their lives than it was for her to have a loving or faithful husband.
If she were honest, she’d always blamed herself in a way for Harold seeking love from someone else.Certainly, she loved Harold but she’d never loved him the way she knew she should have.She’d always held back.
How could she not, when she’d already given her heart away years earlier?
“This is delicious.”
Maureen was pulled from her memory and back into the moment as the woman seated across from her sipped at her drink.
“It really is.”Maureen tested her own drink and closed her eyes as the sweet, delicious chocolate coated her tongue.“Oh wow.It really is good.”She opened her eyes to see Elise enjoying her drink the same way.
“Isn’t it?They’ve always had the best hot chocolate here at Christmas.Maybe it’s the spirit of the season that makes it taste so good.”
“Maybe.”Maureen took another sip.“Or it could be the hint of peppermint.”
Elise laughed, a sweet sound.She plucked a tiny marshmallow from the top and popped it in her mouth.“You’re here on your own.”
It wasn’t a question, but something about the woman made Maureen want to talk.“I’m actually supposed to be meeting someone,” she said.“But I don’t think he’s coming,”
Elise took a long, slow sip of her drink, and when she looked up again, there was chocolate on her upper lip.“Do you have a reason to think he might stand you up?”
She did.But at the same time, she didn’t.
“Are you here with your niece?”Maureen deftly changed the subject.
The older woman laughed before leaning forward and winking conspiratorially.“She’d…how do the kids say it now?Freak outif she knew I was down here by myself.I told her I was going to bed, and she had some work to do.She works too much.She tried to tell me that we couldn’t come this year.But I insisted.”
Elise’s choice of words struck Maureen, and she, too, laughed.
“This year?Do you come here a lot?”
The older woman’s face softened.“Every single year for over sixty years.”
